Accommodation in London looks set to rocket during next year’s Olympic Games.
Many hotels will be increasing their prices in view of influx of tourists and one hotel intends to charge five times the normal tariff, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The four-star hotel quoted £1100 for a room that would normally cost £200, according to a wholesale tour specialist who asked for neither the hotel nor his company to be named.
Another four-star hotel quoted £297 per room per night during the Games compared with £131 this year, and a three-star hotel has more than doubled its £80 a night rate to £162.
Budget hotel’s like Travel Lodge only book 12 months in advance and so cannot yet be booked for the games, they may be a cheaper option.
Visit London’s tips for getting the best hotel deals
- Don’t book your hotel until your Olympics tickets have been confirmed. Tickets go on sale at 11.59am tomorrow but the ballot is open for six weeks so you won’t find out whether you’ve got tickets until 26th April.
- Shop around for the best deal. Sixty per cent of hotel rooms have been allocated to local tour operators but that leaves a huge chunk of rooms that can be booked individually
- Visit London isn’t biased so you can check prices on their website – www.visitlondon.com/2012 – and compare them with other websites and tour companies.
- The Games are spread out across the city so don’t restrict your hotel search to central London.
- Your Olympic ticket will allow you to travel for free on London Transport so it could work out a lot cheaper to stay a bit further out.
- To check the location of Olympic events, visit www.london2012.com/map.php
Tickets for London 2012 went on sale yesterday and tourism chiefs are worried that the price rise will stop people from visiting London during the Games.
Chris Foy, a spokesman for the government’s tourism agency Visit Britain, told TravelMail: ‘We will get a much clearer idea of hotel prices once the tickets go on sale but we have heard from tour operators overseas that they are having trouble booking hotels during the Games’.
‘Hotels will lose out if they price their rooms too highly because people will hold out for better deals. Ultimately the market will dictate the prices.’
